the perfect bite

The festive holiday season is upon us and soon there’ll be many excuses to celebrate. I’ve recently fallen in love with this incredibly easy hors d’oeuvre which I’m really excited to share–it is absolutely perfect for entertaining. I’m sure that some of you may take one look at the pastry bag and run screaming from your kitchens, but not so fast! I promise that when you see how quickly this comes together–and how incredibly impressive it is to serve–you will fall in love too. The beauty part? You can make the dough ahead, then pop the puffs in the oven minutes before your party begins to insure the wafting aroma of melted cheese will greet your guests at the door. The quintessential complement to cocktails, serve these light and airy, slightly gooey cheese puffs hot out of the oven. Perfection…mais, bien sûr!

Gougères

Pâte à choux literally means puff pastry, but it’s in no way related to the very complicated puff pastry dough that we generally think of. There’s no rolling or kneading involved here–this mixture starts in a saucepan and finishes with a bowl and a spoon. And you can easily customize the recipe to your liking. Add thyme, add chives, add dill. Add gouda, add blue cheese, add cheddar. Add bacon, add smoked salmon, add… you get the picture. I like to add a pinch of smoked paprika to the dough and then, to echo that flavor, a sprinkling of smoked Maldon salt at the end for a final flourish.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a 2 quart saucepan over medium heat, bring water, milk, butter, and a large pinch of kosher salt just to a boil.

Stir all purpose flour into the pan, turn the heat down to low and continue stirring with a wooden spoon until dough forms and pulls away from the sides of the pan, about 3 minutes.

Here comes the hard part. Transfer dough to a medium bowl. Add eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly with a spoon until each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next. It make look separated at first, but you’ll see, as you keep stirring, how beautifully the dough comes together. Not too bad, right? 

Mix in Gruyère cheese, preferably French. Grate nutmeg into the bowl, add a large pinch each of freshly ground black pepper and smoked pimenton. 

Now this is where you can get creative: experiment with different cheeses, spices, herbs. I decided to add some chopped thyme to mine. [If you would like to make this recipe several hours ahead, you can make it up to this point, then reserve the dough in the refrigerator; bring it back to room temperature before continuing.]

Place a pastry bag fitted with a large, round tip into a tall glass and fold it over the top to make it easier to fill.  If you don’t have a pastry bag, don’t sweat it–you can use a plastic ziploc bag, too. Just snip off a corner of the bag for piping once it’s been filled.

Pipe the dough into tablespoon size rounds onto the baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. You’ll have extra dough to make another batch after your guests inhale these!

In a small bowl, whisk an egg. Using a pastry brush, dab the top of each puff with the egg wash. Sprinkle with more gruyere and sea salt, or smoked Maldon, if you have it.

Place in the oven and bake for about 20 to 22 minutes, turning position of the pans once. The gougères should be shiny, golden, and puffed to perfection. Serve immediately, or you can let them cool and refrigerate or freeze them for later. Just reheat in a 350 degree oven until completely heated through.

 

Adapted from Alain Ducasse/Food & Wine

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